This invention relates generally to an electronic timepiece having a liquid crystal or light-emitting diode display element and more particularly to an electronic timepiece wherein supplemental intelligence is conveyed by flickering at a predetermined repetition rate and duty cycle of all or part of the display. Because later models of electronic timepieces are designed to perform an ever greater number of functions, there is a correspondingly increasing necessity to find means to display this increasing amount of information. It is well known that liquid crystals and light emitting diodes, arranged in segments, are used for purposes of display in electronic wristwatches. However, to display the ever-increasing number of additional functions by means of additional segments forming additional characters or marks, would increase the number of electrodes and make the display elements very large in size. So, in such a straightforward method of display, namely, adding segments, there is a practical physical limitation to the amount of additional information which can be displayed in a wristwatch. In some electronic wristwatches of the prior art, additional information, other than the information which is normally displayed by particular segments, is displayed by flickering of the segments at regular intervals and with a predetermined duty cycle. For example, in an electronic timepiece using a battery as the power source, the entire display repeatedly flickers at regular intervals to indicate the condition of the battery. Displaying information by an on-off flickering of the segments is much more conspicuous to the eye of the user than is displaying continuously by continuously driving the segments. Therefore, a flickering display is effected for the conveyance of information which is desirably displayed in a special, noteworthy manner. Unfortunately, the flickering techniques of the prior art have added only one additional bit of information to an existing display.
What is needed is an electronic timepiece which can display at least three information functions using a single display element, which without flickering would normally provide only one information function.